- Rhode Island has been searching for new engines of growth ever since the flight of manufacturing jobs decades ago.

In 2022, state lawmakers launched a big bet to respond.

Build a biotech and life sciences sector from the ground up.

That effort led to the creation of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub.

And in 2024, the hiring of Dr.

Mark Turco as its president and CEO.

So was it worth the gamble or did Rhode Island get into the life sciences game too late?

I'm Ian Donnis, and that's just some of what we talked about in this in-depth conversation.

(mid-tempo electronic music) Dr.

Mark Turco, Head of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub.

Welcome to "One On One."

- It's great to be here.

Thank you, Ian.

- You were chosen from among more than 300 applicants for this job.

You have a background in startups.

You probably had a lot of options available to you.

Why did you want this job?

- This was an amazing opportunity.

I felt very fortunate to be able to be put in this position, to be able to help the people of Rhode Island, and to help build, with our state legislative body and our general assembly and all of the other folks involved, a life science community here that could really help drive the economic growth of our state.

- You trained then to be a physician, and you practiced in cardiology before making the switch to innovation and technology, what led you to make that switch?

- Well, first, practicing as a physician, it's a true privilege to be able to take care of patients and I really enjoyed it.

I practiced for close to 15 years.

I left medicine not because I was tired of medicine or wanted a different opportunity, it just happened that something came my way to move to the industry side.

And really when I started to think about the opportunities to make the transition to the industry side, it was to be able to help a larger number of individuals.

As a physician, you know, we can help one patient at a time.

But on the industry side, especially what I was doing on the medical device development front, we're able to help a much broader population of people and patients.

- You were unveiled as the head of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub in 2024.

How have you focused your efforts since then?

- It's been an amazing ride because over this last year, Ian, we've been able to really lay a tremendous groundwork for our life sciences here.

So there was good work done prior.

As you, I think, know, Neil Steinberg, who was the head of the Rhode Island Foundation, had commissioned back in 2023 a report to basically assess whether Rhode Island needed to build out its life science sector.

And that report came back very positive.

Speaker Shekarchi was very, very interested then, seeing that report and helping move this initiative forward, and the governor, the speaker and others, then helped really drive the forward progress of this.

What we've done over the last year, 2025, was really set the base, the foundation, and trying to build that culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the life science sector for the state of Rhode Island.

- We see how there's the development of a state health lab in the Jewelry District, and that's got some space for a incubator for life sciences company.

Brown University is also pursuing the life sciences in the Jewelry District.

When you talk about setting the base for the growth of this sector, what else does that consist of?

- Well, you do need the infrastructure, and you just mentioned that.

We needed, here in Rhode Island, to have an incubator.

What we had seen, and what the report really identified leading up to this initiative, was that academic translation was moving out of the state of Rhode Island because we did not have a facility to house new company creation that would be started here in this state.

- And when you talk about academic translation, that's the idea of commercial efforts being developed out of academic research, correct?

- It's taking that research that's occurring, that discovery that's occurring within our great academic institutions here in the state of Rhode Island and translating them into companies that can help move those technologies forward so that they can actually get into the clinic and be commercializable so that patients can actually see the benefits of all of that amazing science and research and discovery efforts.

That Ocean State Labs incubator will play, and has played already, a very key role to provide that infrastructure.

Other pieces that we've worked on, though, is trying to bring in companies and also nurture the companies, as I just mentioned, that are coming out of our academic institutions.

- Dr.

Mark Turco, as you said, the whole idea of the life science sector is to promote more growth of Rhode Island's economy, more jobs.

What kind of job growth can the state realistically expect from this over the next, say, five years?

- Yeah, so we just commissioned a report, which was really incredibly well done, an independent economic report on the life sciences.

Bryant University Professor Edi Tebaldi completed that report.

And what I don't think people realize is here in Rhode Island we have close to 27,000 jobs in the life sciences.

And then those jobs are around 27% higher wages than the average wage within the state of Rhode Island.

That's a big opportunity for us to continue to build on.

Over this last year, we have basically provided close to $17 million of non-dilutive funding to 30 different entities that are bringing jobs and driving economic growth in the region.

When we're talking about life science companies coming here and job creation, the thing to remember is that it's not a single-sum game in the economic development world.

When a life science company comes, there are then multiples because those companies then need other services and bring other technologies and other needs.

And then hopefully these companies will stay here in Rhode Island once they mature, and then we benefit from all of the other things that they can bring to our economy in the state of Rhode Island.

- Can you put any kinda number on that for the reasonable tangible effect over the next five years or so?

- So what we've done over this year, and I can give you a tangible number there, is, this year, with the money that we have invested, the state money that we have invested, we have brought in pretty close to 250 jobs to the region.

That's a significant number of jobs.

If I look at one of the big areas that led to some of that job creation was us bringing a public company, Organogenesis, to Smithfield, Rhode Island.

So that company moved from Canton, Massachusetts, their manufacturing and expanded their manufacturing to Smithfield, Rhode Island, and that brought almost 175 to 200 jobs in that move.

And that's brought in as well $100 million of private funding that has been put forth by Organogenesis to build out that Smithfield facility.

So a lot of economic growth from that one example.

- The first members of the life science incubator were unveiled last September, and your hub announced a series of grants more recently for companies to relocate to Rhode Island.

Tell us about some of these companies and the kinda work that they're doing and the kinda difference that would be made possible if their work is successful.

- Thank you for that question.

Because that's what it's all about, right?

It's about these companies ultimately bringing technology that is going to improve patient access and patient care in our region.

And it's not only our region then, the hope would be that these go nationally, globally and help improve patient care across our world.

So as you mentioned, we announced that six companies will be moving in to Ocean State Labs, which will officially open up and be science-ready come February second.

So next week, we will open those doors to a 30,000 foot incubator, which is just above the Department of Health labs at 150 Richmond Street.

Those six companies, as well as many of the other companies that we've helped fund, are in sectors of oncology, sectors of cell and gene therapy, sectors of RNA, sectors of neuroscience, all very, very important, and key sectors for expanding the life sciences here as well as opening up opportunities for those companies to receive follow-on investing from key institutional investors.

- Dr.

Turco, what are the top challenges to moving the life sciences sector and achieving the kinda potential that we would all like to see as far as more job growth?

- I think one, we have to, you know, realize that we're in a time of uncertainty at the federal level.

You know, we have to see where NIH funding goes, where funding and programs like SBIR grants and STTR grants, which are critical to small companies when they first start out, and to founders, and we have to see where the federal, you know, dollars are going to go to those key programs.

Rhode Island, in 2025, received $250 million in research funding from the NIH.

And that's important funding for our academic institutions to do their discovery work that then leads to, hopefully, company creation and that translation.

So one challenge and headwind is certainly at the federal level.

The other is that this is a competitive space.

We need to be competitive as a state.

If you look at what Texas is basically putting into their life science efforts, what Massachusetts continues to put into their life science efforts, what Connecticut is putting into their life science efforts, and other states, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, everyone realizes the importance of committing to life science hubs to drive and be another pillar for economic growth opportunity within their state.

And that's what we have to commit to.

- What do we know about how the Trump administration's stance toward funding research is affecting the life sciences sector here in Rhode Island?

- It's certainly been, again, a headwind for our academic institutions.

Funding from the federal level is critically important.

And if you look at where most of our drug discovery comes from, it starts within our academic institutions, not within the big commercial entities.

So we need to continue to fund our academic institutions and our academic health systems in those early discovery efforts, which comes from the federal funding.

And it is critically important that that federal funding be maintained so that we do not lose our edge.

There was a recent federal congressional report that was commissioned to look at innovation across the United States.

And one of the key findings of that report is if we do not continue to commit and keep our edge, we will then lose out to other countries.

And one of the big countries that, especially in the biotech sector, I'm concerned we're losing out to a bit is to China.

China right now has 40% of the oncology trials that are done in this world.

40%.

And if you look at many of the big biopharma companies and biotech companies, they are working with Chinese entities.

It's critical that we as the United States maintain our edge, and that's why that federal funding is so critically important.

- The top research universities in Rhode Island are Brown and URI.

How would you describe their role in connection with efforts to build the life sciences sector in the state?

- They've been incredible partners.

President Parlange at URI, and then President Paxson at Brown, as well as Dr.

Jain, who is the dean of medicine at Brown University.

They've been tremendous partners and, in fact, sit on our board, the Rhode Island Life Science Hub board.

I am incredibly privileged to be working with such a high-level board and a board that really has given its all to help continue to move these efforts forward.

Our academic institutions, as well as the academic health systems and our great leadership at Care New England and now Brown Health, they have been very, very supportive.

And that's the beauty of the board that we have for the Rhode Island Life Science Hub and the board that was appointed by Governor McKee, is that we have leaders and representatives of almost all of the key sectors sitting at the leadership level on our board.

- The state has put tens of millions of dollars into this effort to build the life sciences.

What sort of benchmarking is going on to determine whether that investment is paying for itself and paying off?

- Yeah, I think that's important, right?

Anytime we use taxpayer dollars here in the state, it's critical that we show a return on that investment back to the state.

So we have metrics that we look at.

One of the metrics is obviously job creation and how many jobs we're bringing into the region.

I think the other is the quality of job that we're bringing into the region.

I think I mentioned earlier about the difference in wage in the life science community and life science jobs versus other jobs in the region being 27% higher, that is a critical metric.

You know, what is the quality of the job that we're bringing in?

I think the other is what is the follow-on funding that is coming into these companies and the dollars that these companies are bringing in to the Rhode Island economy?

And these are all metrics that we're looking at.

And I'll be judged on by the governor, by the speaker, by other legislators with regards to whether we're actually doing a good job and being successful in being good stewards for taxpayer dollars.

- You talked earlier about how there's clearly a competitive landscape nationally, internationally on the life sciences.

It's no secret that Rhode Island is late in the game in trying to build this sector.

Cambridge and even Worcester have been in the forefront for many years.

How does that affect Rhode Island's efforts and is that a challenge that the state is late in the game to this?

- I think it's an opportunity.

You know, just like we've talked about, the federal funding being a headwind, there's opportunity there within our state.

And the opportunity is this, is that we have not overbuilt.

Some of these other regions have, to some extent, overbuilt.

And we are appropriately sized at the current time.

We will continue to grow and build our infrastructure as we continue to hopefully grow our base of life sciences.

So I really think it's an opportunity for us, not a situation where we are so far behind that we can't be successful.

The other point that I would say is that our success is a success of all regions.

So if Massachusetts is successful in life sciences, if Maine, New Hampshire are successful in efforts, Connecticut successful, we will, in the New England region, be successful in life sciences.

And that's what it's about, because it's about developing new technologies, biologics, therapeutics that ultimately will get into the clinic and improve patient care for patients within our state.

- The Boston Globe reported last September on how the biotech sector in Massachusetts was facing headwinds, funding was getting scarcer, some companies were running into tough times.

Did you see any of that same trend here or is that more reflection of what you were saying about how perhaps things were a little bit overbuilt there?

- Yes, there are pressures on us and there are needs that companies have that hopefully we, within the Rhode Island Life Science hub, can help with what those needs are.

But yeah, there are challenges in our region.

There are challenges in Massachusetts.

There are challenges in every state that is trying to build out life sciences to drive economic growth in that region.

But we just need to continue to push forward.

As I mentioned, though, I think we're sized appropriately at this point.

And I think we have a lot of great opportunity, given our size, with the ability to work with our state commerce department, to work with our state legislators and our federal delegation to, again, be successful in this effort.

- You say we're sized appropriately.

It's been reported that the research triangle area in North Carolina is a growing competitor even for the vaunted biotech life sciences sector in Massachusetts.

If North Carolina is having that effect in Massachusetts, what does it mean for little Rhode Island?

- We are landlocked, and this is what we need to do.

We need to identify parcels of land.

We're working very closely with our colleagues at the 195 District.

And you've seen some of the great redevelopment that Marc Crisafulli and his group at the 195 District have kind of done, you know, here in Rhode Island.

Quonset.

Quonset is a great example in growing the defense sector and the marine sector, and the number of jobs that have been brought in from the growth of Quonset.

So what we need to now look for is how can we almost develop out, to some extent, a Quonset 2.0 plan that allows for biomanufacturing in the life sciences to move here?

We want to attract and be competitive, like the Research Triangle, and attract companies like AstraZeneca, like growth of Amgen.

Amgen is already present in manufacturing here in Rhode Island, we'd hope to grow that.

Pfizer, all of the other big pharma and biotech companies moving manufacturing here would create 1,000, 2,000 jobs in one swath.

And we just need to identify land and acreage that can be open for that.

There's some land available in Smithfield in addition to where Organogenesis has currently developed their manufacturing facility and hopefully we can continue to build out that region, as well as some other regions around the state.

- Rhode Island is not known for having a particularly welcoming business climate.

How does that affect efforts to build the life sciences?

- It's something that we're working on with our state legislation and our commerce secretary.

Our commerce secretary is currently my vice board chair, and he's been an amazing partner in moving these efforts forward and working with us.

We need to be business-friendly to be successful.

And I think we have some amazing programs that have been put forth now by commerce and developing tax credits and rebuild opportunities in innovation credits and other different programs to where we can and are getting that competitive edge compared to some of the other states.

- Speaking of being business-friendly, a millionaire's tax is part of Governor McKee's proposed budget.

Massachusetts has a millionaire's tax.

Is that kinda thing on the radar of people who work on the life sciences and is that a concern?

- I think we'll have to see where all that kind of plays out over time and ends up.

Our concern, and my concern as the leader of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub, is to drive our life science sector so that we can build economic growth for the people of Rhode Island and for the state of Rhode Island.

And my focus is really on bringing those companies, both small and large, into the region.

We are blessed here in Rhode Island by having many folks that have worked in the life science sector and continue their work in living here in Rhode Island because of the great life that people can have here in Rhode Island and people that have retired from some of the big tech companies that are all wanting to help us be successful.

We have been met from the business community, and the partnership for Rhode Island has been incredibly helpful.

That is chaired by John Fernandez, who is the president and CEO of Brown Health.

The Partnership, under Liz Catucci's leadership, now has been incredibly supportive with their business community of our life science efforts.

- Dr.

Mark Turco, you're a technology and innovation guy, so I have to ask you about AI.

AI is being integrated very quickly.

I wonder if you think this is happening too fast and without sufficient guardrails.

- You can't have a conversation about innovation without talking about artificial intelligence.

And artificial intelligence will continue to accelerate and be part of our world.

It's going to help us in areas of life science, such as drug discovery.

Using artificial intelligence to advance and accelerate drug development and reduce some of the hurdles that there are in the drug development world, that's a great opportunity to use artificial intelligence.

I do think we need to have some guardrails for artificial intelligence.

But, you know, you, I'm sure, have listened to what's come out at the discussions of Davos, you know, at the economic summit this past, you know, week.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay.

Companies like NVIDIA, that are leading the charge, are very well-connected now in the life science realm to help develop and accelerate some of our technology development using all of the great artificial intelligent tools.

- In closing, what are three books that you've read that you would recommend to other people?

(Mark chuckles) - And I have a night table filled with books that I'm currently reading.

"John Adams" book is a book that I've recently read and have really enjoyed.

You know, that I- - By David McCullough.

- Yeah, David McCullough.

Fabulous book and a lot of great learnings.

I'm also reading a recent book that is around health and nutrition.

And, you know, I think that is a critical area for us.

As, you know, we move into the 2030 to 2050 time frame, the number of diabetic patients and the number of patients with hypertension and the obesity epidemic, you know, are great.

And there's a great short book that just was from an author that is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania called "Eat Ice Cream."

And it goes through a lot of, you know, health and wellness aspects that we need to kind of move forward with.

And then on the fun side, some of Stanley Tucci's books.

He has a great perspective on life and there's a lot of good learnings in some of his books as well.

- Was that about traveling around Italy and showing the food there?

- That is correct, yeah.

- Dr.

Mark Turco, Head of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub, thank you so much for joining us.

- It's great to be here.

Thank you for having me.

- Thanks for watching "One On One" with me, Ian Donnis.

You can find all of our past interviews on the YouTube channel for Ocean State Media.

We'll see you next week.

(mid-tempo electronic music) (mid-tempo electronic music fades)